Been making some 28mm Kits

For my Chain of Command 28mm British Infantry the welcome sight of a Sherman Mk I (see below, the ubiquitous Western Front armour support): 

She came up nicely, less parts in 28mm than most 20mm kits (see below, looking ship shape and ready for battle): 

Keeping with the 1944 theme, my Crusader originally bought as a Western Desert AFV had a course change and became a AA D-Day+ addition to the British Armour inventory (see below, the Crusader had an extended career with the various specialist functions it found itself in): 

The Western Desert armour support was provided by the Valentine Mk II/III variant (another nice Rubicon kit). I did briefly toy with the idea of a Soviet version but decided that could wait for a 6pdr later variant (see below, 2pdr and 3 inch turret options shown):  

Assembly of 28mm kits is faster than 20mm! Painting might take longer though!

Charity Shop Find - Airfix 1/72 Models

Obviously from somebody's loft clearout some old Airfix kits, I came across these in a "charity shop" and acquired them (see below, these have that Tunisian feel to them, ready to fight teh retreating Afrika Korp!): 

Representing those not good, but better than before Allied mid-war tanks!

1:72 Pegasus Hobbies - Pz 38(t)

Two in a box is a very appealing selling point for the wargamer. Two Pz 38(t)'s would also nicely flesh out and complete my early WWII Panzer Battalion (as per Command Decision OrBat). Small little things with a few parts (so it is not an exercise in fiddly modelling, gets the thumbs up from me - especially teh all in one track. One small 'ouch' moment though, in fitting the track to body of the tank there is a sharp "snap" from the track, as it broke cleanly in two. Something had to give as the track was warped in a concave fashion and had to be bent back to fit correctly. Thankfully the resulting small gap was easily bridged with "a small slither of plastic-card" (see below, in its "gap state", construction was therefore a little more exciting than I wanted as this happened four times, once for each side of track):  

Despite that it was a very nice quick build but with a detailed model (see below, the first one finished - commanders cover chosen to be open): 

Two tanks completed, turret hatches open awaiting "commanders" - with a small fleck of white denoting the plastic-card track repair (see below, once the first tank was done, then the second one was much faster): 

Searching around in the spares box for some German Commanders and I found two Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) ones that looked early war(ish) and they were shaved/sculpted to fit into the turret, which meant "breaking arms - the reangling then", sounds much more complicated and brutal than it actually was. It amounted taking a small triangular wedge out of one part of the arm/shoulder and then adding it to another part): 

Undercoating and painting next (tbc when though). At least the "to be assembled pile" is one box smaller.

Weekend Plastic Frenzy (1) Airfix Sherman

Well at the weekend I had the chance to write up an AAR for the blog or do a bit of hands on plastic modelling and the modelling won, first up was an old Airfix Sherman (see below, turret hatch open waiting for a suitable British tank commander figure to be found):

This means I am almost finished the basic 1944 RTR Command Decision OoB complement of standard tanks ;)

Modelling Note: The new Airfix tracks are a great improvement. They were really easy to glue together with "cheap pound shop" superglue! Dried white but everything is going to get painted over, so that ain't an issue,

Balsa Tank II

Little pairs of eyes "watch and copy" what "big people" do, something that I continually forget, so it was with no small amount of surprise and pride that I witnessed the 'Balsa Tank' move onto a higher form courtesy of my youngest son and daughter (see below):

A "Two-Tone Brown and smudge of black Black" Tank that could be NATO's secret weapon in Tim Gow's Garden Wars!

:)

A Balsa Tank?

One of the "fun" things I was given at Xmas. My wife's predictions were, a usual, true to form. In the sense that although I was a little dismissive of it at first (understatement, "What's this for?"), once my tiny little hands started working on it I really 'enjoyed it' in an "Art Attack" way. Crude, rough and ready but FUN! The finished product IMHO is as good as many (any?) a GW 40K vehicle product [dig dig, I like their figures but don't see the point of the majority of their vehicles, aka "The Basilisk" come on that thing fires "off planet" for gawd's sake!] at a knock down SALE price of a couple of quid (see below, end result being a modern 2000+ supertank?) :

It needed a bit of UHU glue in places, although it has a Red (Chinese or Russia) Star I think it has a American "Super Patton" feel to it. All balsa and 95% old old fashioned "Workwood Slot Joins". I think it could even fit into one of Tim Gows - 54mm Garden Wars!

 :)

Airfix Matilda II

I remember this kit fondly from my childhood, despite the fiddly wheel arrangement that my tiny little hands had so much trouble with.

The Matilda II "Queen of the Desert" with turret hatches cut open ready for a tank commander to hop in (see below):

It is still a nice little kit that holds its own despite its age (see below):

So much so I made two using the excuse Airfix drop their kits in and out of production "so get them while you can" (see below)

Note: The tank commanders are from PSC via their Bren Carrier pack of three.

The crazy ambition is to work up to a CD II/III Western Desert RTR (ten in total required). I already have five at the moment so ten by the end of year (one of which has to be converted to a CS tank) does not seem too big an ask.

Why ... er I will get back to you later, as my DAK is minimal, but that could change. Mind you the ANZACs and Russians had Matilda's too.

Airfix King Tiger Porsche

I had to get it despite having too many King Tigers already, (four in total, three of them Henshel [2 x Esci and 1 x Fujimi]turrets and one a Porsche [1 x Fujimi]). Seeing as Airfix had gone to all the trouble of making a new one it would be rude not to make one ;)

The new tooling is a dream and 95% of it is a pleasure to make, however they have strayed into the common trap of being too fussy with respect to the German complicated wheel arrangements at the expense of making the prongs that stick out to fit on the wheels too weak when you need strength in them the most (see below).

The issue comes to haunt the model maker when you try to "slip" the track over the running arrangement. I have to say first though that the new tracks are a massive improvement over the old Airfix tracks, better plastic and better connector design (as in, they have finally learnt from their old arch rivals Matchbox how to do it properly some forty years ago - I'm not complaining as they work now!) I found out that I bent one and had to take the precautionary measure of filling the space with Milliput as per below:

Despite this it looks a mean cat (see below), too mean for the venerable old Airfix Sherman and Churchill, plus the newcomer Cromwell which also is waiting in the wings for a chance to be made.

It is definitely a nice acquisition to have but part of me wishes they had gone back and "fixed" the Tiger I (it needs  a stowage bin and mud flaps) and made the mud skirts round the 234 armoured car the correct "late war" variant! I thought for a while they were going to do this as they released a Sherman Crab, a Sherman Calliope, the Matilda Hedgehog, a Crocodile Churchill and a Churchill Bridgelayer. These were effectively an existing kit with a new sprue stuck into it, which I thought made perfectly good sense. So why not the stowage bin on the Tiger and four little mud-flaps?

The Xmas Plastic Parade #1: Airfix Churchill Tank

Over the Xmas break I had a rather productive run as assemble some 1/72 and 1/76 AFV kits.

First was an old childhood favorite of mine, the Airfix Churchill Mk VII. The most impressive part of the Churchill VII to me was the 75mm gun, the thick armour was "nice" but not sloped which wasted a lot of protection potential (it just gave the crew ten seconds to bail) and slowed it down, still no match for a Panther, Tiger I or Tiger II, but a good "infantry support tank". The kit assembly was straight forward, the only extra fiddly bit was leaving the turret hatches open for a commander to poke out of. The tracks are awaiting the "staple" method of connection (see below, and yes I have not glued the track covers on yet, that would have been silly):  

The assembled product (see below):

This is the third tank of a Command Decision company the question I am trying to work out is whether I need a fourth? RTR (cruisers) have four tanks to a company, I am unsure regards to the Infantry Tank Brigades, as to whether they were so richly endowed, the Spearhead OoB suggests so.

Any thoughts and information appreciated?

Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) Panzer Mk IV H

As the beer advert goes, "Probably the best ... experience I have had putting a Panzer IV kit together"! Another bullseye for the Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) and no I am not on a commission (see below): 

The side skirts have been temporarily left off, but for late 1944 Panzer IV's they certainly look the part!

The only mysterious (where does this go?) part was the 'exhaust(?)' filter that goes on the rear, top left side of the engine compartment. A dream to fit together and I think it will even survive the roughest of wargamers hands. I still have flashbacks of putting the side and turret skirts on an Esci Pz IV (Ausf H) together.

All part of the Command Decision OrBat for my "1944 Panzer IV German Tank Battalion" project, to be continued.

PS My plastic"heap" is at last shrinking :)

The Mighty Maus in 1/72 [2] and Slightly Pink

Taking a brief rest from things naval I returned to the mighty tank that never really was, the Mighty Maus (Mouse) from a previous post.

Not a hard paint job as there were many huge flat surfaces quite easy to wet brush over. Not a pretty thing, just an armoured box on tracks, with a huge gun in an infeasible turret.

Towards the end things seemed to be going slightly pink. At first I thought it was my eyes until I checked the Tamiya label, Desert Yellow XF-59, the "modern" desert camouflage as opposed to my intended Panzer Yellow.

Ah well, it was still in the base colour undercoat so I decided not to panic and amused myself by comparing it to a Panzer I (see above and below). Tiny Tim the "Panzer I" certainly shows the breadth of WWII German tank designs.

The next stage is to black wash with a watered down Anita's Acrylic Metallic Black.

The Mighty Maus in 1/72 [1]

From Pegasus Hobbies, Museum Miniatures range (I think). Never thought I would get my hands on this silly super tank, but I did.

Assembled (and there are a lot of bits that go together to make the silly bogey arrangements you do not see) and under coated, waiting for that Panzer Yellow dirty wash perhaps (I could justify myself doing Panzer Grey as anything goes in 1945 German paint shops or even a anti-rust primer driven out to the front)?

I cannot think of a valid WWII wargaming reason to have it, but it was a wacky must! It is also huge, as you would expect, next to even an IS-2!

Follow on: A splendid de-motivational poster from the comments below

Red Muscle the T34/76

What wargame collection is complete without the ubiquitous T34 of 1941 era? Fast, rugged, punchy and well armoured, sloping to boot. Its tactical deployment in the early years of the war was its only undoing. Nevertheless it blunted the Blitzkrieg and was a Hero Of The Soviet Union in its own right.

This is not a matching pair. The chap on the left is a Fujimi 1/76 and the AAMG version to the left is perhaps my favourite Matchbox (now back out in Revell colours) tank kit. Prime choice for the Commanders tank.

Again an old couple whose life together started in Aberdeen and finally were painted and "decalled" to completion in England.

152 reasons to be wary of Russian tanks

Bar the crazy, multi-turreted T-35 land-tank the KV-2 has got to be the front runner as the strangest Russian tank (early war?). To call it a "tank" may be stretching its definition as it was primarily a 152mm "Bunker Buster", Like certain WWI dreadnoughts (HMS Agincourt and the Invincible/Super-Invincible class battle cruisers come to mind) it could run into trouble if it discharged a broadside without being first firmly footed.

A behemoth it truly was.

Tip: If you are a small (20mm, 1/72 or 1/76) plastic/metal German wargame infantryman and you can read the writing on the side of the KV-2 then you are too probably close (Teller mine in hand or not).

Destruction of fortifications like the Finnish Mannerheim Line are its true purpose in life, but its mere existence scared the pants off the German Panzerwaffe in 1941. Encountered during the opening phases of Operation Barbarossa it corrected the false German belief in that the Panzer IV F1 was a true "heavy" tank.

This is the 1/76 Fujimi kit, bought fifteen years ago in Aberdeen, gradually built and painted in fits and starts. I will have to turn my recent "bare plastic" kits into a form like the above (note: even decals). I still like it and think it holds it own after despite its modelling age.

PS I thought one these was more than enough for any wargame army but I notice Paul from Plastic Warriors has a troop of three!

Russian Heavy Metal

Just to prove that not all my tanks have black crosses on them. Indeed something to scare any German tank commander in 1941. The KV1:

Even more dangerous when they prowled in packs. As seen from a Luftwaffe Henchel 129 ground strafing plane (which explains the blur):

These are all 1/76 Fujimi models, built well over a decade ago, eventually painted in a summer green and decalled. A recent addition to the fold is:

The Trumpeter 1/72 kit is a recent acquisition put together over the summer. Exceedingly nice to make and waiting a decision on painting pattern. Lots of parts on the wheels though, so it was less haste more speed and slowly sipping my way through the build. I'll probably go with the Russian winter white-wash over faded summer green. Company for the old plastic Revell Siberians I have painted.
 

More Shermans (ArmourFast and Tank Magazine)

Coming out of the box two at a time from the ArmourFast range, the Sherman M4A2 version, destined to be painted up in 8th Army desert camouflage for Operation Supercharge in the Battle of El Alamein 1942 project:

They will round up a composite tank battalion. To go with my:

• Three painted Hasegawa Crusader Mk III's.
• Three partially painted Airfix Crusaders
• Two unpainted Hasegawa Grants
• One Airfix unpainted Grant
• Two unpainted Matchbox (yes they are old) M3 Honey's. 

Against which I plan to throw an assorted bunch of Axis DAK and Italian armour + Anti Tank guns (the latter of which needs to be fleshed out somewhat).

Meanwhile in France near the borders of Germany:

This ("too bright a green" which desperately needs some weathering and application of mud) M4A3 Sherman of the 756th Tank Battalion of the US 5th Army. As its gun is shorter than my other US Sherman's it will probably be designated as the 105mm Howitzer of the battalion (yes, yet another 20mm Tank Battalion project).

PS: This was another £2.99 bargain at the Yorkshire Trading Company store:)

ArmourFast T34-85

Will this show of raw naked plastic ever end? Perhaps not, this time it was two banged together T34-85's from ArmourFast.

The T34-85 in its late-war guise needs numbers to intimidate. The ArmourFast boxes help by giving you two at a time, costing out in bulk the cheapest but as good as my Fujimi and old Airfix versions. It is a useful tank to have as its active life-span stretches well into the latter part of the twentieth century.

These I think are simply destined to become part of the late-war Red Army. 

 https://www.onthewaymodels.com/reviews/Armourfast/Armourfast_T3485.htm

In summary an easy build that I enjoyed doing :)

At last I have a Panzer IVG (with side-skirts)

The Panzer Mark IV I always wanted as a kid. The one with side skirting. An old, old Esci kit gifted to me by a benevolent wargaming friend who is still a keen WWII wargamer but now in 15mm

• 

Painted past the undercoat Matt Black, Sand Yellow base and Oily Black Shade stages due to the devil of the side skiting, still requiring a highlight of Sand Yellow followed by the Green and Brown of the late-war German camouflage scheme. Hence still a work in ptogress.

However this also means my fourteen tank Panzer IV for a CD III late-war German tank battalion reaches half-way (suitable for fighting on both East and West Fronts), following a similar manufacturer orientated company composition scheme.

Totals to date:

• Esci Pz IV F2 x 3
• Esci Pz IV H x 1
• Hasagawa Pz IV G x 1
• Airfix Pz IV F2 x 2 (and still looking to get another one sometime)

Note: In the background I do have 3 X Airfix Pz IV F1 in early war German Panzer Grey colour scheme which could be drafted in as extras. The remainder will probably come from Airfix, Hasagawa and Revell. Again a slow fifteen year project in the making.

The Joy of Airfix (5): Purring Panther

Although the Airfix Panther is not substantial in size it still well represents the "Killer Kat" and hence forms a company of the beasts in my WWII late-war German Panther Battalion. Destined to be fourteen tanks strong in the end, these two complete the plastic needed for the Airfix Panther Company.

In addition to the above I have two Esci/Italerli Panthers (the chances of getting a third now seem slim), one old Matchbox kit, three tasty big Hasagawa brutes. The remaining five places are destined to be filled by Hat and Italeri fast builds and the newer more detailed Revell kits.

A slow moving project, I've only been working on and off at it for fifteen years ;)

Pass the black undercoat paint pot and brush :)

The Joy of Airfix (4): "B" Squadron RTR

A whole bunch of raw plastic Shermans. To be strictly correct three Airfix and one Revell (old Matchbox). This gaggle is intended to form "B" Squadron of my 1944 post D-Day (even Arnhem) 20mm Command Decision RTR. Plenty of plastic still needed but getting there :)

Say what you like but the Airfix Sherman is still a cheap clean kit that is little fuss to put together and I do like the new Airfix track plastic.

Now where did I leave the Black Matt undercoat?